Lord Rooker: The severity of the disease and the controls to monitor and restrict movement of horses could significantly affect the equine industry in the UK. Introduction of the disease could be either through the windborne carriage of infected midges from the near European continent if disease were to be confirmed there, which is not the case at present, or through the illegal introduction of infected equines. It is a requirement that owners who suspect an equine of being affected with African horse sickness notify Animal Health (formerly the State Veterinary Service).
	European Union rules permit imports of horses only from countries or regions which are free from African horse sickness. Pre-export tests are required for all horses from free countries in Africa or the Middle East.
	Council Directive 92/35 provides for compulsory notification and the setting up of a protection zone of at least a 100-kilometre radius around an infected premises. This, together with a surveillance zone of at least a further 50 kilometres, would have to remain in force for at least 12 months.
	African horse sickness is included in The Specified Diseases (Notification and Slaughter) Order 1992 to implement the slaughter requirements of EU Council Directive 92/35/EEC, which lays down control rules and measures to combat African horse sickness.

Lord Rooker: The wide-ranging research work on bluetongue and associated diseases is undertaken by Pirbright (in containment facilities) and some other research (not requiring containment) is carried out in a number of other facilities, such as universities. The total number of scientists engaged in this area of work is around 36. This figure can fluctuate a little with the allocation of part-time staff and changes in student and post-doctorate numbers.
	The knowledge base on bluetongue and African horse sickness is predominantly centralised at Pirbright and the laboratory co-operates internationally in respect of its work on this area. This is reflected by its status as a European Community reference laboratory for bluetongue and is the OIE reference laboratory both for bluetongue and African horse sickness. All research undertaken at Pirbright is published.

Lord Astor of Hever: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What is the status of the Ministry of Defence JAMES2 database.

Lord McKenzie of Luton: The change to the permitted work rules announced at Lords Report stage of the Welfare Reform Bill means that, within Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), anyone claiming either the contributory or the income-related benefit will be able to earn up to £86 per week for up to 52 weeks without it affecting their benefit entitlement. The current rules for supported permitted work will apply to contributory ESA and, in addition, those customers on income-related ESA who are able to undertake supported permitted work will be able to do so for up to 52 weeks. We are also looking at ways in which a similar concept to the current personal capability assessment exempt group in Incapacity Benefit could be brought forward into ESA.
	Other rules around work, for example the permitted work lower limit and the ability to undertake unlimited voluntary work, will also be brought forward into ESA.

Lord Morris of Manchester: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What study they have made of the findings and recommendations of Carers UK's report Caring for Sick or Disabled Children: Parents' experiences of combining work and care; and what action they are considering arising from the report.

Lord Truscott: The report is wide ranging. Insofar as parents' experiences of combining work and care is concerned, the Government have an excellent track record in providing choice and flexibility to help parents balance their work and family responsibilities. We introduced the right to request flexible working for parents of young and disabled children in 2003. We have been monitoring the impact of this legislation and have recently extended it to carers of adults. The law has been a considerable success: almost 25 per cent of employees with dependent children under the age of six have requested flexible working in the past two years and four out of five requests are accepted.
	The report also highlights several issues under the term "the benefits trap". We are aware of these concerns and there is pre-existing work in development as well as existing policy measures in places. For example, we are currently developing an information provision strategy to improve information provision for carers across all DWP services and channels, including DWP customer-facing staff at agencies (Jobcentre Plus, Disability and Carers Service and Pensions Service), leaflets, relevant marketing campaigns and helplines. This will aim to co-ordinate messages and information for carers about benefits, work options, training and pension planning.

Lord Hanningfield: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	How much money has been moved from funding acute healthcare to social services closer at home in the last financial year, in line with the targets set in the White Paper, Our health, our care, our say.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: Figures are not available. The White Paper does not set any numerical targets for the National Health Service or social care. Primary care trusts will however need to demonstrate in the 2008 planning round that they have a clear strategy for the development of primary and community services, including ambitious goals for the shift of resources rooted in the White Paper vision. In the mean time, we are developing metrics that can be used to measure the shift of care closer to home, which includes the need to promote preventative interventions and health and well-being, with stronger local servicesand support to reduce the prevalence of physical and mental illness.

Lord Hanningfield: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	How they reconcile their aspirations relating to choice, early intervention, prevention and local services as set out in the White Paper, Our health, our care, our say, with the current local authority social care budgets and the need for local authorities to set higher eligibility thresholds in regard to social care.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: We are committed to the delivery of the vision and goals of the Our health, our care, our say White Paper. We continue to make substantial investment to support local authoritiesin placing more emphasis on prevention, early intervention and bringing about the transformation of services to give service users more choice and control. This is backed up by the recent commissioning framework for health and well-being which provides primary care trusts and local authorities with a framework to work together to improve the health, well-being and independence of their populations.
	We are investing £60 million over the years 2006-08 in the partnerships for older people projects, to enable councils to develop innovative ways to help older people avoid emergency hospital admissions and to live independently in their own communities. The projects are testing and evaluating innovative ways of enabling health and social care communities to create a sustainable shift in their whole system towards prevention. We are also piloting individual budgets, designed to increase choice and control, and to support people in decisions about their own lives. Learning from these projects and others will help local authorities, working together with their partners in the National Health Service, to make locally appropriate decisions about the most effective use of their resources.
	The department has provided guidance to councils with social services responsibilities, but local authorities set eligibility criteria for who qualifies for local authority funded social care.

Lord Rooker: The Government fund extensive research into the effects of natural and human factors on the climate through the research councils, predominantly the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), and Defra. Defra's activities include the funding of the world-leading Met Office Hadley Centre.
	UK research made a significant contribution to the recently published Fourth Assessment Report Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This report assessed the relative contributions of different natural and man-made forcings on the climate over the past century. It concluded that it is very likelythat observed global warming over at least the past50 years was predominantly caused by increases in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations. Changes in solar output may have contributed to some early twentieth century warming, but cannot explain the recent strong rise in global temperatures.
	Over the century as a whole, the warming effect of changes in solar output is estimated to have been only around one-tenth of that due to the rise in greenhouse gas concentrations. There is no evidence suggesting that cosmic ray variations have played a significant role in warming over the past century.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: As stated in the White Paper Review of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act: Proposals for revised legislation (including establishment of the Regulatory Authority for Tissue and Embryos), the Government are not convinced of the need to preclude research activities that involve alteration of the genetic structure of the embryo, as part of legitimate research projects. This position is, in principle, already recognised in the legislation by the provision of a secondary legislative power.
	The Government intend to remove, for research purposes only, the restriction on altering the genetic structure of a cell while it forms part of an embryo. This is distinct from genetic modification of embryonic stem cells or tissue stem cells not forming part of an embryo. Aims of such research on embryos could include, for example, understanding how specific gene defects lead to symptoms of disease or failure of embryo implantation.
	Licensing controls applicable to projects of research involving human embryos will continue to apply. Licences cannot authorise any activity unless it appears to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to be necessary or desirable for one or more of the purposes specified in legislation, and unless the authority is satisfied that any proposed use of embryos is necessary for the purposes of the particular research project.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: The current public/private partnership ended on 31 March 2007. The department is working with strategic health authorities (SHAs) to finalise the numbers of audiology pathways that will be commissioned in future, with the waiting time objectives set out in Improving Access to Audiology Services in England firmly in mind. These pathways will be commissioned in part from National Health Service providers and in part from the independent sector.
	Some independent sector activity may be procured locally. In addition, the department is procuring activity on a national regional basis on behalf of local commissioners. The first of this activity—part of the independent sector treatment centre phase 2 diagnostics procurement—is due to come on stream shortly. Further activity will be procured nationally subject to the outcome of the current work with the SHAs. The waiting time objectives are set out in the aforementioned document and will drive local activity levels. Activity targets are not necessary in this context.
	It is important that common standards should apply to NHS services whichever organisation provides them, and the department is working with NHS providers and the independent and voluntary sectors to ensure harmonisation. This work includes the development of education and training programmes for introduction during 2047-08. As the recent document made clear, the department is committed to considering the introduction of national audiology tariffs as soon as practicable bearing in mind the recommendations of the Lawlor review of payment-by-results.

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: It is the long-standing practiceof successive Governments never to comment on intelligence matters.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: Returning the National Health Service to overall financial balance has been a key priority in 2006-07. As part of the strategy to achieve this, strategic health authorities (SHAs) have top sliced resource allocations made to their primary care trusts (PCTs), thereby creating SHA reserves. The level of any contributions is based on the financial and service circumstances of individual organisations, and is always underpinned by the principle of fairness.
	Top-sliced resources are held in the SHA reserves on behalf of the NHS. The SHA can use these reserves to balance the overall financial position within its area—not by physically moving money around the system to bail out individual organisations, but by setting the resources against instances of overspending by trusts and PCTs at aggregate economy level.
	We have been clear that SHAs should maintain the integrity of the allocations system, with contributing PCTs being entitled to repayment of their contributions over a period which does not normally exceed the three-year allocation period. We have asked SHAs to make sure that, as far as possible, PCTs with the greatest health need are the first to be repaid. However, any repayment is dependent on affordability within the SHA economy, and is inextricably linked to the speed and stability of financial recovery in the NHS as a whole.
	The table shows PCT's in Essex top-slice forecast outturn allocation at Quarter 3, 2006-07.
	
		
			 PCT name Q3 2006-07 PCT forecast outturn top-slice £000's 
			 Mid Essex PCT 0 
			 North East Essex PCT 7,800 
			 South East Essex PCT 8,900 
			 South West Essex PCT 18,400 
			 West Essex PCT 2,500 
			 Source: Financial monitoring returns Quarter 3 2006-07

Lord Rooker: The Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme shows potential for contributing to air quality monitoring and forecasting policies at various levels. The aspiration to make data (from ground and satellite networks) more readily available, efficiently acquired and fit for purpose is welcome.
	Current air quality monitoring at member state level is determined by a European directive that stipulates the use of certain technologies and standards which must be adhered to. This is usually delivered through ground-based sensor networks. Satellite data are not used as they cannot meet the required data quality criteria, but they could still be useful for giving greater insight into air quality issues, for instance through quantifying diffuse or remote sources such as international shipping or ammonia emissions from agricultural land.
	Air quality forecasts are based on operational models used by the UK Met Office. In future, we expect to see greater use of assimilated satellite data to help enhance these models, particularly in terms of trans-boundary transport of pollutants. Currently, the use of satellite data is mainly restricted to research activities. The ESA Promote project demonstrates the potential for a host of air quality and atmospheric composition services to be delivered. Whether they can fully transition to operational status will depend on many factors, including the accuracy and reliability of data acquisition.

Lord Bradshaw: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the Written Answers by Lord Bassam of Brighton on 12 March (WA 99) and 16 March (WA 160) (a) why further public consultation and regulatory impact assessment on the mandatory fitting of conspicuity markings to heavy goods vehicles are necessary, when a recent regulatory impact assessment and public consultation demonstrated public support for the introduction of this requirement; and (b) whether they will now draft an amending statutory instrument to make conspicuity markings mandatory on all newly-registered heavy goods vehicles.

Lord Bassam of Brighton: The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency does not have the legal authority to release information to foreign authorities seeking to enforce fines and penalties. We are aware that the European Commission is funding research to identify the steps that could be taken at a European level to implement a pan-EU approach to cross-border enforcement of traffic offences involving all member states.
	Further information is contained in the department's response in January to a Commission consultation paper Respecting the Rules: Better Road Safety Enforcement in the European Union. Acopy of the response can be found at: http://ec.europa.eu/transport/roadsafety_library/consultations/enforcement_20061106/enforcement_united_kingdom.pdf.